Trinamul’s GTA union dissolved

Darjeeling, Dec. 28: The Darjeeling Himalayan Karmachari Sangathan, a union of GTA employees affiliated to the Trinamul Congress, was dissolved today by the central committee, saying Mamata Banerjee’s party had been unable to fulfil the aspirations of the members.

The Sangathan’s president, Dilip Singh, today issued a written statement announcing the dissolution of the union. “The union has been unable to fulfil the aspiration of its members largely because of political tug-of-war and hence, a decision has been taken to dissolve the union, its central committee as well as all its block and local level units,” Singh’s statement reads.

Even though Singh did not specify the details of the unfulfilled aspiration, the Sangathan was formed primarily with the demand of regularisation of GTA employees. The GTA employees are not full time government employees. They can serve till the age of 60 years after which they are given a onetime amount of Rs 1 lakh upon retirement.

Even their salaries which start from around Rs 6,000 are way below the pay of the regular government employees.

Trinamul had seemingly made a major breakthrough when the party had formed the Sangathan on October 20, 2013. A large number of supporters from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s GTA union, Janmukti Astai Karmachari Sangathan, had joined the Trinamul union.

According to Singh’s statement, the members would no longer be associated with Trinamul. This effectively means they have resigned from the party, too.

“It has also been announced that the (members) of central committee, block committee and local committee will no longer be associated with Trinamul or with any of its associations,” the statement reads.

The decision to dissolve the union was taken at the Sangathan’s central committee meeting today.

Singh could not be contacted for details.

Sarban Khawas, the vice-president of the now defunct union, too, did not respond to calls on his cellphone.

On December 4, Binanjay Gurung, the general secretary of the Sangathan, along with 180 supporters, had joined the Morcha.

Gurung had then said: “We have joined the Morcha because Trinamul has only assurances, nothing else. They can do nothing in the hills.”

Gurung had also then claimed that with the switch of 180 members, the Trinamul union had hardly any members left.

Binny Sharma, the general secretary of the hill Trinamul, when told about the dissolution of the party’s union, said: “It is the democratic right of any individual to either associate or disassociate himself with or from a party. The union was formed only a year back and all their aspirations cannot be fulfilled in such a short span of time.”

Sharma, however, said: “Dissolution of the union does not mean that the union cannot be resurrected. The present Sangathan leadership might have decided to dissolve the union but on another day, other leaders will form the union. We will sit for a party meeting for introspection.”

Sharma claimed that their union had a membership of around 1,600 GTA employees.

Jyoti Kumar Rai, assistant secretary of the Morcha, said: “We welcome the decision taken by the Trinamul union. The Morcha leaders have been elected to the GTA and there is no way that Trinamul can do anything for the employees in the GTA. Even though Trinamul is not a force to be reckoned with in the hills, it is time for those few people who are with Trinamul to leave the party which is against the demand of Gorkhaland.”

Members of the Sangathan have not yet said whether they will join the Morcha after their disassociation with the Trinamul today.

FLASH NEWS

West Bengal Govt. to form Namasudra Development Board within a month’s time, Bengal’s largest Dalit community Namasudras, many of whom are post-1971 migrants from Bangladesh. Some 17 ethnic development boards have been formed by Mamata Banerjee in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts for the different communities of the hills. 35,626 total views, […]

With the tripartite talks failing in Uttar Kanya, the Joint Forum of Tea Trade Unions have called for a three-day bandh of all tea estates in Terai and Dooars in the plains and stopping of tea dispatch in all the tea gardens of the Hills. They also started a sit-in […]

UNESCO has expressed its displeasure over the maintenance of Darjeeling’s toy train and the closure of some stations due to the shortage of manpower and poor maintenance. 40,239 total views, 6,342 views today Comments comments

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung on Saturday claimed that the West Bengal government was secretly measuring land in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal to settle those people who names would not eventually come up in the final list of National Register of Citizenship (NRC) 40,236 total views, 6,341 views […]

Four youths, Lakhu Subba, Wangdi Tamang, Kamal Mothay and Bigesh Mothay, all in their early 30’s, were arrested on Sunday on charges of raping the 16-year-old. 40,164 total views, 6,341 views today Comments comments

DT Archives

Sponsored

Apr 27, 2018Comments Off on Meet Aqui Thami from Darjeeling, whose travelling library is putting the spotlight on women’s books

‘Sister Library’, founded by the artist and activist, is going to several cities and sparking conversations around the representation of women in literature. Aqui Thami is an artist and activist from Darjeeling,...

By: Jyoti Thapa Mani [Gorkha History writer] This profile of Capt. Ram Singh Thakuri was compiled by eminent Gorkha history writer Ms. Jyoti Thapa, who meticulously curated this profile over the past 12 years, and used...

Feb 04, 2015Comments Off on Gazette Notification on issue of Citizenship issue of Gorkhas

Gazette Notification on issue of Citizenship issue of Gorkhas (Published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary Part – I Section 1 dated the 23rd August 1988 ) No. 26011/6/88-ICI Government of India Ministry of...